Along Came Rachel
by angelique-anja
Summary: There's a new girl in town who's about to change the lives of all the Eppes men. Summary sucks, please check it out!
1. Chapter 1

_Ok, now for a Numb3rs fic. My CSI:NY one is still going, I'm just taking a break from it and this story has been bouncing around in my head for a while. I hope you enjoy!_

_Anja_

Charles Eppes walked into his office, focusing on the file in his hand. Don had asked him to look at a case and he couldn't figure out where he'd gone wrong. Placing the file on his desk he glanced up at the board. Reading through his equations, he stopped when he reached something that was different. The equation had been changed. The hand writing wasn't Amita's either. Looking down to the answer, he realized that who ever had changed the equation had solved it. Scratching his head he imputed the answer into the computer and watched a location pop up. He called his brother and told him where to go.

It wasn't the last time he'd found the equations changed in his office. Problems he'd left half finished because he'd had to go to class or when Amita had dragged him out to lunch, would be completed and correct by the time he returned. It went on for about a month till one day.

A young woman, wearing the cleaning uniform of the crew that worked CalSci was tidying Professor Eppes' Office. She glanced at the boards again. She'd promised herself she would change his equations again, but looking from the data he'd put up on one board to the equations on the other. Looking at them, she frowned. Professor Eppes was a brilliant mathematician, but wrong outcome from the data can screw everything up. She put the cleaning stuff back on her trolley and picked up the chalk and started adding to Eppes' equations. She'd been so engrossed in what she was doing, that she never heard anyone enter the room.

"Hey! Stop that!"

The chalk fell from her hand and shattered on the floor, she spun around and saw Eppes' brother standing near her. She made a run for it, suddenly scared. He was FBI and she was probably changing case work again.

Agent Eppes gave chase after the young woman, down the hall he finally caught up with her. He grabbed her arm and forced her to face him. She gave a cry as she spun around.

"What do you think you were doing? You can't just change Charlie's work!" A yelled at her.

The young woman was scared, "I'm sorry!" She cried!

Noticing how scared she was, he loosened his grip on her arm, "What's your name?"

She took a deep breath before answering, "Rachel Malone."

He lead her back to Charlie's office. He'd now returned and was staring at the board excitedly, "This is amazing! How could I have missed that?"

Don Eppes stared at his brother, then down at Rachel. He was still holding onto her, "Charlie?"

"Huh?" Charlie spun around to see his brother there, "Oh, Hi Don. Who's this?"

"She's the one who's been meddling with your equations."

"Meddling? Don, this is right. I was using the wrong data," Charlie said. Don's grip slipped away from Rachel's arm. She rubbed her arm and held it close to her. Taking a good look, Charlie realized that she'd been crying, probably due to Don. He watched as she disappeared slowly out of his office. They could bother hear her start to run the instant she was out of sight.

"What do you mean right?"

"I mean. Give me a few minutes and I'll have the answer. I just need to finish it. You know, it's not the first time. About a month ago, I was having problems with a case file, I couldn't figure out where I'd gone wrong. I came back in and the answer was there. And sometimes when I go to lunch or class, I find my equations finished. Don, if that girl is the one doing this. She's a genius."

Don looked at the work, the out the door to where the girl had run.

Rachel was standing in the cleaner's office, by her bench. She'd left her trolley in Eppes' office, meaning she couldn't get back to work until he left his office. She looked at the things on the bench that needed fixing. She she grabbed a mirror that needed to be taken to one of the bathrooms. She collected toolbox and placed it beside the mirror. She sighed to herself.

"Damnit!" She said, punching the table. She cried out in pain as he hand was cut on the side of the mirror, then connected with the bench.

Don had just reached the door to the Maintenance office when he heard someone cry out in pain. He rushed in to find the girl from earlier, holding her hand close to her. He could see trickles of blood between the fingers of the other hand which was covering the injured one, "Rachel?" She looked up and anguish on her face changed to fear as she started to back away from him, "No no, don't. I'm sorry about before. I didn't mean to hurt you." She stopped backing away and let him approach, but didn't say anything, "Let me see your hand," He asked, holding out his own, "What happened?"

"Self inflicted... I punched the table, got cut on the mirror," She said softly, as she held out her hand for him to inspect.

He took her hand gently, careful not to scare her again. He still felt guilty about that. He'd never seen such fear in someone's eyes for just asking a question. He had to admit that he'd been a bit rough on the girl, but not to that extent, so he thought. He brought a handkerchief out of his pocket and held it on her hand, "You should get that looked at."

She shrugged, "I've had worse."

Don looked at her, "Charlie says your math work is amazing." He watched as she looked away awkwardly.

"What does it matter?" She asked looking back at him, "I can't afford to go to college and I'll never get anywhere without a degree." She took her injured hand away from his grasp and walked over to the first aid kit. Rummaging around with her good hand she found a bandage. She put Don's handkerchief on the table and started to wrap her hand with the bandage.

Don walked up to her again. He paused as he saw her flinch, "Here, let me."

He took the bandage and her hand a finished wrapping it, "Seriously, you should get it looked at."

Later that day, Don was sitting in the break room at the FBI staring into his coffee, thinking about Rachel.

"You seem distracted."

He looked up to find Megan looking at him, with her own cup of coffee. He sighed. He'd never even noticed her coming in, "Yeah..."

"Want to talk about it?" She asked sitting down across from him.

Don paused a moment then looked up at her, "There was this girl at CalSci this morning. She was messing around with Charlie's work. So I stopped her. She ran out and I went after her, for all I had know she was trying to botch the investigation. But Megan, the way she reacted when I grabbed her. She was so scared," He went back to staring into his coffee. "You know what, Charlie said the work she'd done was right and that someone had been completing the problems now for weeks. I went to talked to her later, she'd cut herself, but when she saw me she backed away and when I would approach, I could see her flinch."

"Sounds like the girl was abused Don, you didn't know any better," Megan said.

"She didn't care that she'd hurt herself. It was a bad cut. And Charlie said if she's really the one doing the mysterious math in his office, then she's bound to be brilliant. So why is she the cleaner?"

"Because she can't afford college? It happens a lot Don. You don't know this girl's life."

He nodded, "I know, it's just..."

"You now want to help her?"

He nodded, "Yeah..."


	2. Chapter 2

_It's only a short one, but next up we'll have a case! I didn't mean to make Charlie sound stupid in the last chapter, it just sort of came out that way, but i'll explain about the case he couldn't do in the next chapter too! Glad some people are liking it! Don't forget to R&R_

_Anja_

It was a few days later and Charlie looked disappointed when he returned to his office after class, "What's wrong?"Amita asked.

He pointed at the board, "I was hoping to see some of that girl's work again. But I guess she's scared now..."

Amita looked around and noticed on his desk a notepad, "Maybe not," She said holding it up for him to inspect.

He looked at it and smiled, "Yeah! That's her hand writing. Look at this," He started pointing out facts to Amita. He was like an excited school boy with his 'show and tell.'

"That's impressive."

The heard someone enter with a cleaning cart, "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you were here Professors."

Charlie grinned, "Don't worry about it. You're the girl from the other day right?"

She nodded nervously, "Yes."

He glanced at her bandaged hand. Don had old him about the mirror, "It's Rachel right?"

She nodded again, "I can come back later," She said hurriedly and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Charlie held up the notepad. She looked back at Charlie, "This is your work? Like all the others?"

Rachel nodded, "Yes. Agent Eppes said I shouldn't use the board. Paper was annoying, but it worked."

Amita finally spoke up, "It's amazing work. How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

Charlie's eyes lit up, "You could get a scholarship!"

Rachel shook her head, "No... School isn't my thing. I should really get back to work."

Charlie had one last chance to get her to talk, "You can't be happy in that job. Not when you're so good at this. Since Amita graduated and became a Professor, I'm lacking an assistant."

Rachel looked skeptically at him, "You're kidding right? Like a TA?" He nodded, "You have to be a student to do that."

"No you don't," Charlie said, "You've been helping anyway. Only difference would be people would actually know."

Amita grinned, "Pay's better too!"

Rachel smiled, "I guess... But I'm really not that good."

"How about this. You try it out for a week, you don't like it, you can go back to what you're doing. Does that sound fair?" Charlie asked.

Rachel nodded, "Ok, but one week."

Alan had cooked dinner and he was sitting with Don, Charlie and Amita. They were idly discussing various topics when Amita decided to change the subject, "Charlie hired a new Teaching Assistant today."

"Really?" Alan asked, "That's great."

"Who?" Don asked.

Charlie looked at his brother, "That girl, Rachel."

"Really?"

"Well, she only agreed to try it out for a week. She honestly believes that she's not good at what she does."

Don shook his head, "She's different."

"She's very unsure of herself," Amita said.

"So, when does she start?" Alan asked.

"Monday," Charlie said.

The mention of Rachel made Don go quiet, remembering what Megan had said about her reaction, "Are you going to let her help on cases?"

"She has been already. I don't see why not," Charlie said.

Don nodded, "Ok."


End file.
